Sport 01-04-2005 England At Top Of Group Six who: England football team what: Beat Azerbaijan 2-0 after thrashing Northern Ireland 4-0 where: St James` Park, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE when: Wednesday night snippet: Goals from Steven Gerrard and David Beckham against Azerbaijan on Wednesday evening took England to the top of Group Six of FIFA`s World Cup European qualification table as they added a 2-0 victory to Saturday`s 4-0 defeat of Northern Ireland. However, doubts over the ability of the team to go further remain very real. Azerbaijan, the group`s bottom team, were beaten 8-0 by Poland but at St James` Park, despite countless chances at goal, England failed time and again to convert. Michael Owen, in particular, "will struggle to remember a more trying night in the England shirt," says Matt Dickinson of The Times. And he will not even have a chance to redeem himself when England play Wales in Cardiff in September because of a second-half booking in Newcastle. However, there was good news for Wayne Rooney this week. Although he failed to score in both games and has still never played a full 90 minutes for his country, he and David Beckham acquitted themselves well this week and Rooney was informed by police that they would not be following up accusations that Rooney assaulted 22-year-old student Patrick Hanrahan at the Tiger Tiger nightclub in Manchester on March 22nd. Northern Ireland were thoroughly outclassed on Saturday afternoon but managed to hold England at bay for 45 minutes before the flood began with a goal from Joe Cole nine minutes after the break. "Michael Owen added a second from close range," says the BBC, "before Chris Baird turned Rooney`s cross into his own net and Frank Lampard hit a deflected fourth." Lawrie Sanchez`s side needed victory in Poland to recover from that defeat but despite a spitited performance in Warsaw they lost 1-0 thanks to a goal by Maciej Zurawski in the 85th minute, leaving them in fourth place with three points from six games - a massive 13 points behind Group leaders England. Nevertheless, Sanchez remained hopeful of success at the play-off stage. "I think we`re not going to catch Poland now," he says, quoted in The Sun. "What we need to do is finish as high as we can in our little group of Azerbaijan, Wales and maybe Austria so in the next campaign we come out the hat - seeded - a bit higher with one or two teams we can knock over or look to knock over." Wales, who have not won a competitive game for more than two years, lost 0-2 to Austria in Cardiff on Saturday but on the return leg in Vienna they were playing well until goalkeeper Danny Coyne committed what The Mirror calls "a terrible clanger four minutes from time to condemn Wales to defeat in a match they should have won". The Republic of Ireland drew 1-1 in Israel in Group Four on Saturday and Oliver Kay of The Times says they may "may live to regret" the draw. They went on to beat China 1-0 in a friendly at Lansdowne Road on Tuesday and are currently fourth in Group Four with nine points, close behind France, Israel and Switzerland. Scotland were beaten 2-0 in Italy thanks to two goals by AC Milan midfielder Andrea Pirlo on Saturday. They are fifth in Group Five with just two points from four games. Italy lead their Group by a four-point margin. [... more]

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